I just received an email from my friend Lisa Shindler, newly arrived medical worker to the native village of Kotzebue, Alaska. It contains a serious report about the tragic depression and suicide problems there in Kotzebue among some of the natives.
In fact, Alaska is rated the state with the most SUICIDES in our nation!
Here is an excerpt from the Anchorage, Alaska, Newspaper regarding native suicides:
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Lisa will be dealing with this daily in her medical work and providing medical training among the Inupiat villagers. She will fly to these villages for a week at a time, leaving her two children alone.
However, LISA NEEDS ASSISTANCE NOW! And I want to COME and HELP!
Lisa cannot adequately do her work among the Inupiat without my help. She has two children, one of whom is severely autistic. She must fly a week at a time to the villages to help these natives. She cannot leave them alone long term and there is no one in the native village of KOTZEBUE to perform this task. I have done this kind of service for her previously for several months while living with them. Her two sons adore me, Adam and Solomon.
Too exhausted from her many hours of health care work in a federal prison to clean or cook for her family, I did so for hours daily. Her family loves me!
Already she has missed much work after arriving because of her problem with no one to watch the children. It is now very cold within the arctic circle with snow falling constantly there.
Lisa therefore has requested my help at this critical time. She wants me to come up and help her. But due to the extremely HIGH cost of living there, she has no funds to bring me there. Gas is $12 a gallon or so, and food costs are exhorbitant. Her rent for a ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT is $1,200 a month! And basic phone service is $300 a month.
I now need financial support to go there. My only work is my journalism that I provide on this blog. You, my readers, are the ONLY SUPPORT FINANCIALLY that I have and can count on!
Here are the estimated costs:
$518- Alaska Air: Seattle WA to Anchorage AK
$346-Alaska Air- Anchorage to Kotzebue AK
$86-AMTRAK train: Whitefish MT to Seattle WA
$930 total
$346-Alaska Air- Anchorage to Kotzebue AK
$86-AMTRAK train: Whitefish MT to Seattle WA
$930 total
Please, won't you consider sending urgently needed financial support at this time and counting it as an early Christmas gift? I have sacrificed everything for my important journalistic work on YOUR behalf for many years, and many of you my readers, have never sent any support at all throughout the years. Frankly, I have suffered deeply as a result, living in very severe conditions, even as I am living now, sleeping in my truck in Montana cold.
Now is an excellent time to bless me for the years of FREE journalism I have faithfully provided to YOU throughout the years!
My mailing address for all financial support is:
Pamela Rae Schuffert,
PO Box 3073,
Columbia Falls, MT, 59912There are many mdeical needs among these peole in their remote villages.Without the medical help and training of people like Lisa, the future of these natives looks very bleak as winter approaches. Lisa desperately needs me there so her work can continue.
But through your kind support, I can GO and be a blessing to Lisa!And a brighter day will dawn over Kotzebue and that region for many there.
Children also need Lisa' professional medical care in the villages. Right now, her son Solomon is enjoying the school and interacting with the Native children there immensely. And as Solomon, told me, they like him too! They often come over to Lisa' apartment to play with Solomon.
For all compassionate financial donors, I will supply the email address of Lisa Shindler, so that you can be in personal contact with her, and she can confirm everything that I have shared with you. She can also give you progress reports and what to pray for.
-SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY MONTANA READERS-
In closing, this will be a difficult transition for me, as it has been for Lisa and her children as well. Kotzebue is a small but proud native village. People here must fly to Anchorage to do NORMAL shopping: there are no major stores, etc. here in Kotzebue. The winters are long and cold and dark. But the people there are very special, highly intelligent, very skilled, and resilient. They know how to survive this climate! But unfortunately, Lisa and her family and I have never experienced living in such a location. Thus, it is a challenging transition for all of us.
Because of isolation, the cost of living in Kotzebue is SKY-HIGH! Grocery costs are unbelievably high, especially for produce. But we are willing because they NEED US!
Please help to make this miracle become a reality. Send your support today.
-Pamela Rae Schuffert reporting from Montana
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